Weekend Review

This weekend was busy and filled with controversy. On Saturday night, a new Cruiserweight (200 Ibs.) champion was crowned as Yoan Hernandez (26-1 13 KO) defeated Steve Cunningham (24-4 12 KO) by unanimous decision in their rematch. The scorecards read as 116-110, 116-110, and 115-111. However, these scorecards do not reflect the actual fight as Cunningham was able to battle back after a 4th round where he got knocked down twice and was obviously seriously hurt. Most people who witnessed the fight thought it was extremely close. The fight itself was entertaining, with the highlight being the 4th round. Hernandez caught Cunningham with a short left hand that had him wobbly. Cunningham went down again from a flurry by Hernandez. But, the Philadelphia native fighter was able to outwork Hernandez during the later rounds. Cunningham was gracious in defeat though.

On the same night, Nonito Donaire (28-1 18 KO) won another belt as he battled Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. (21-2-1 17 KO) for the WBO super bantamweight (122 Ibs.) title. Vazquez was able to put up a better challenge than most people expected but ultimately Donaire’s athleticism, speed, and power were able to answer to Vazquez’s challenge. The fight started cautiously and both fighters tried to pick their spots. Donaire’s timing was better than Vazquez and in the middle rounds he began to drop his hands to try to get Vazquez to exchange with him. Vazquez responded somewhat as he began to land his jab with a certain degree of frequency. He wasn’t able to follow the jab up with any power punches however, and Donaire knocked him down in the 9thround. Although Donaire controlled virtually the entire fight, he won a split-decision. The judge who scored for Vazquez had him winning 115-112. The other two judges had Donaire winning 117-110. It was later revealed that Donaire had ruptured a vein in his left hand.

In the middleweight division (160 Ibs.) Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (45-0-1 31 KO) defended his WBC title by fighting and defeating Marco Antonio Rubio (53-6-1 47 KO) by unanimous decision. For the majority of the fight, Rubio was overwhelmed by the pure size of Chavez, who weighed in about 10 pounds heavier than Rubio. Chavez bullied Rubio around the ring, landing nice body shots and straight right hands whenever he let his hands go. Rubio tried to play with this by punching back with him, but his punches never seemed to hurt Chavez.